Cointal’s CIO/CMO speaks on the future of cryptocurrency marketplaces.

One could consider Cointal the black sheep of cryptocurrency exchanges, in all of the best ways possible. By going against the grain, Cointal went from a small startup one year ago, to doing over $15 million in trading volume over the past two months. Their secret is to take all of the problems and pain points from other crypto and P2P services and solve them.

P2P services are gaining more traction in the crypto space as exchanges face continuous challenges such as hacks, legal issues, and more. Rather than act as a traditional exchange, Cointal allows for extremely flexible P2P swapping from a wide variety of currencies. They are also the first P2P Ethereum and Ripple marketplace, given more options beyond traditional Bitcoin only exchanges.

I had the chance to learn more with Cointal’s CIO/CMO, Youssef Azzouzi, on Cointal’s humble beginnings and future plans for 2018.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself:

I am the CIO/CMO at Cointal, a multi-national team of experienced traders, developers, visionaries, marketers trying to make crytpocurrencies easier for everyone. Our P2P marketplace connects buyers and sellers directly, eliminating many of the headaches involved in cryptocurrency buying/selling.

2. What was your inspiration behind Cointal? How did it all start?

We noticed what the cryptocurrency ecosystem was lacking and decided to take things into our own hands. The idea initially came to our CEO, Mohamed Imad, while discussing it with our CTO/CSO, Ahmed. It all came rather casually rather than seriously. We all had business in our blood and couldn’t resist to join in on another passion project.

We started by hiring one of the best developers in the country, who previously worked at Samsung. In the early-stages, we designed the product around all of the pain points we experienced on other platforms. In this sense, we scratched our own itch and made sure Cointal would always be something we would personally love using. And one year later, here we are!

3. What makes you guys different than your competitors? What is your competitive advantage?

Simply put, we try to offer everything our competitors don’t and provide the best user experience. Some of the examples include no deposit or withdrawal limits, instant transfers rather than potential blockchain delays, no fees for buying, minimal 1% fees for selling, and a wide range of payment methods.

I personally consider that we are just getting started, since our biggest competitive advantage is our flexibility and adaptability. If anything goes wrong, the whole team stays awake until it’s fixed. If a feature is missing, we start working on implementing it first, while trying to improve it as we go. We are still very scrappy and hands on, despite our recent success.

4. What is the biggest problem currently in the market?

As with any revolutionary technology, there have been growing pains in the blockchain world. Originally designed to be instant, secure, and frictionless, accessing and using cryptocurrencies can still be complicated. Fees, transaction times, and conversions are taking longer and longer. Most platforms are too complicated for the average news user. This is no one’s fault, but just the natural progression of a fast moving and disruptive industry.

That’s where we kick in. Cointal focuses on doing anything for the market to help it become smooth and stay smooth. This is a long-term focus of ours.

5. If there is one thing you could change in the industry, what would it be?

It is important to study and understand the potential of cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technology in a more generalized fashion, throughout the world.

The problem is we need systematic education, support, and adoption. It is the future of the economy, so why not work towards a faster adoption? Blockchain technology will make everything easier in the long run. I would love to see all industry participants work together and form a synergy that will lead to the safe and thoughtful crytoworld that we are striving towards.

6. What does 2018 have in store for you guys?

The new year has a lot in store for Cointal. We built the platform to be light, versatile, flexible, and user friendly. Due to this, we can move fast to implement new features. In 2018, we will be adding more cryptocurrencies, such as our recent Bitcoin Cash release.

We are also currently working on a program called Unity, which will allow you to buy and sell all the available cryptocurrencies directly with a Credit/Debit card, PayPal, and or bank transfer. You will then be able to use your cryptocurrencies directly on many other platforms with our upcoming feature, the ‘’Pay with Cointal’’ button. Using our free wallet provided and secured by Bitgo, users can do everything from day to day shopping to major purchases with their crypto.

In the long-term, we intend to make Cointal hard wallets, a Cointal marketplace, a Cointal debit card, and much, much more.Opinions expressed here by Contributors are their own.

David is a professionally accredited leadership and marketing coach who works with young founders and early stage teams to help them navigate through emerging marketing opportunities with a current focus on artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Using the identification of new technological innovations that give way to different paths that can effectively reach customers, David is able to make marketing departments more effective, adaptable, and progressive.